Sign Language for Climate Change
WORKSHEET
1. Suggested Use
Culture, history and environmental protection focus, followed by B1+-level vocabulary and grammar activities.
2. Suggested Activities
A. Project-based learning
In pairs or small groups, students create a short 1–2 minute silent presentation or video explaining a simple process, without using any spoken or written words. They can use gestures, drawings, facial expressions, and movement to communicate. The other students guess what the process is. Students then discuss: What was easy or difficult about communicating without words? How does this connect to Bridget’s story and her motivation to help her classmates?
B. Mediation task: Translating a written text
Have students choose 10 main content words from the text, e.g. sign, climate change, deaf, learn etc. Have them research how to sign the words. Then, have them practise the signs in pairs. Put two sets of pairs together to sign the words to each other and guess what they are.
C. Pronunciation task: /ɪ/ vs /iː/
Write pairs of words on the board, e.g. sit / seat, live / leave, this / these, ship / sheep. Elicit which vowel is short and relaxed (/ɪ/) and which is long and tense (/iː/). Give students a copy of the audioscript and have them identify the sounds within the scripts. Put students into pairs and have them take it in turns to choose a word from the video and say it aloud for their partner to guess which sound is being used.
3. Vocabulary
Environment
climate change
extreme weather
drip irrigation
save water
government
Inclusion
double amputee
prosthetic legs
deaf
sign language
hard of hearing
sign (v)
Collocations / dependent prepositions
focus on
give back
fetch water
return the favour
share ideas
4. Grammar
Past tenses:
(past simple) Bridget decided to help; A climate teacher showed how to use drip irrigation. (past continuous) People in Zambia were talking more about climate change.
Conditionals:
If I can’t manage, I just spell for them …
Emphatic ‘do’:
They do help me …
TRANSCRIPT
Sign Language for Climate Change
NARRATOR:
Bridget Chanda lives in Zambia. She is 18 years old and a double amputee. She uses prosthetic legs. Walking can be painful, but her focus is on helping others. At her school, many students are deaf or hard of hearing. Bridget is not deaf, but she learned sign language to communicate and make friends. Around the same time, people in Zambia were talking more about climate change. The weather is getting more extreme, and the government wants schools to teach students about it. Bridget decided to help. She wants deaf students to understand climate change, too, so she explains the lessons using sign language. Some climate words are hard to sign. But Bridget spells them to help others understand.
SOUNDBITE - Bridget Chanda:
“So there are some words that I do just signing but there are other words that are difficult that I can't manage signing them. So if I can't manage, I just spell for them, then they will know what I'm talking about.”
NARRATOR:
Bridget also helps when experts visit. One day, a climate teacher showed how to use drip irrigation to save water. Bridget signed everything so her classmates could learn. She says it’s a way to give back.
SOUNDBITE - Bridget Chanda:
“There are some things that I don't manage doing. They do help me. Let's say for instance, fetching water. I can't fetch water, but as for them, they do help me. So I just have to return that favour to them.”
NARRATOR:
Bridget shows that when we learn to communicate in new ways, we can support each other — and share ideas that matter.